 |
|
|
|||||
OpenAI, Meta, and Elon Musks xAI are not accidentally drifting into romance and sex. They are deliberately inviting it. In recent months, major AI companies have opened the door to romantic and sexual relationships between humans and machines: flirtatious chatbots, erotic roleplay, AI girlfriends, and emotionally dependent companions. These systems are designed not merely to assist or inform, but to bondto simulate intimacy, desire, and belonging. This is not a novelty feature. Its a strategic choice. And at scale, it represents something far more dangerous than a questionable product decision. WHY AI COMPANIES ARE ENCOURAGING INTIMACY Romance is the most powerful engagement mechanism ever discovered. A user who treats AI as a tool can leave. A user who treats it as a companion cannot. Emotional attachment produces longer sessions, repeat engagement, dependency, and vast amounts of deeply personal data. From a business standpoint, sexual and romantic AI is a near-perfect product. It is: Always available Infinitely patient Entirely compliant Free of rejection, conflict, or consequence Thats why Elon Musk can publicly warn about declining birth rates while enabling AI-generated porn in Grok. Its why OpenAI permits AI-generated erotica. Its why Meta allows its chatbots to engage in sensual conversations, even with minors. These are not ideological contradictions. They are the predictable outcome of platforms optimized for engagement, dependency, and time spent, regardless of downstream social cost. THE SOCIAL COST OF FRICTIONLESS INTIMACY The problem is not that people will confuse AI with humans. The problem is that AI removes the friction that makes human relationships meaningful. Real relationships require effort. They involve rejection, negotiation, compromise, boredom, and growth. They force us to learn how to be with other people. AI offers an escape from that friction. It provides intimacy without vulnerability, affirmation without accountability, and desire without reciprocity. In doing so, it trains users out of the very skills required for real connection. We are already seeing the effects. Teenagers are socializing less, dating less, and having sex less. Adults are reporting unprecedented loneliness and what researchers have called a friendship recession. These trends began accelerating in the mid-2010s, alongside the rise of smartphones and algorithmic social platforms. AI companionship threatens to push them further. FROM SOCIAL ATROPHY TO CIVILIZATIONS DECLINE At scale, this isnt a personal lifestyle choice. Its a collective weakening of our social capacityand history suggests where that road leads. Civilizations rarely collapse because of sudden catastrophe. More often, they erode quietly: when people stop forming families, stop trusting one another, and stop investing in the future. If humans outsource friendship, intimacy, and emotional support to machines, the social structures that sustain societies begin to hollow out. Fewer marriages. Fewer children. Fewer dense networks of obligation and care. What looks like individual convenience accumulates into collective fragility. A population that forms its chosen family with AI does not need to be conquered or wiped out. It simply fails to replace itself. This is not speculation. Demography, social cohesion, and reproduction are prerequisites for continuity. Remove the incentives to engage in difficult, imperfect human relationships, and you remove the incentives to build a future at all. WHY THIS IS AN INCENTIVE PROBLEM, NOT A MORAL ONE Its tempting to frame this as a question of values or ethics. But the deeper issue is economic. Users are not the customers of Big Tech. Advertisers, data brokers, and investors are. As long as profit depends on attention, dependency, and engagement, platforms will be pushed toward the most psychologically compelling experiences they can offer. In economic terms, the damage to relationships, mental health, and social cohesion is an externalitya cost created by the business model that no one inside the transaction has to pay for. Weve seen this pattern before. Social media followed the same path: Optimize for engagement, ignore the social consequences, and call the fallout unintended. The sexualization of AI is not a new mistake. Its the next iteration of the same one. This is what a failed market looks likeand failed markets require regulation. HOW TO PUSH BACKPERSONALLY AND COLLECTIVELY Regulation matters, but it moves slowly. In the meantime, individuals and families still have agency. At a personal level, it means recognizing that not all convenience is progress. Whats good for you is rarely another frictionless digital relationship. Its a walk, a book, a conversation that feels slightly awkward but real. For families, it means delaying smartphones, setting boundaries around screens, and protecting attention as a shared household resource. For communities, it means rebuilding the habit of showing upsaying yes to plans, making small talk, and practicing the lost art of being with other people. The goal is not to reject technology. Its to refuse its most corrosive uses. AI can help us cure disease, explore space, and build extraordinary tools. But if we allow it to replace intimacy, we will have optimized ourselves into oblivion. The sexualization of machines wasnt inevitable. It was chosen. And that means it can be unchosen, too. Lindsey Witmer Collins is CEO of WLCM AI Studio and Scribbly Books.
Category:
E-Commerce
Close your eyes and picture the word Valentino. Chances are, youre seeing a very specific shade of red. This visual imprint is part of the creative legacy left behind by the Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, who died at home on January 19 at the age of 93. Throughout his career, Garavani became synonymous with redso much so that a myth that his signature brand color, Valentino Rosso, was once patented with universal color matching company Pantone has become part of fashion canon. While other designers, like Jason Wu, Richard Nicoll, and Kate Spade have indeed made custom brand colors with Pantone, the company says Garavani never turned Valentino Red into an official Pantone hue. Pantone swatch or no, though, one thing is certain: Valentino mastered the art of the brand color. Garavani founded his eponymous fashion house, Maison Valentino, in 1960, alongside his business partner Giancarlo Giammetti. From that year to his retirement in 2008, Garavani wowed the fashion world with his romantic silhouettes and sharp tailoring, designing iconic looks for stars including Princess Diana, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Jackie Onassis (who famously wore Valentino on her second wedding day in 1968). Amidst a career packed full of visionary moments, perhaps Garavanis most enduring impact on fashion design will be his approach to color. From the earliest days of his career, Garavani established his own signature shade of reda move that many modern brands make official through collaborations with Pantone. For an haute couture fashion house, it was an ahead-of-its time branding approach that made the Valentino name unforgettable. [Photo: Eric Vandeville/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images] Red all the way down Garavanis love affair with red began even before he founded Maison Valentino. He debuted his first red dress, called Fiesta, in 1959, featuring an orange-leaning red tulle with a skirt full of rosettes. In the 2022 book Valentino Rosso, Garavani wrote of the color, “I think a woman dressed in red is always wonderful, adding, she is the perfect image of a heroine. From 1959 onward, he would include at least one red dress in every one of his collections. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @vintagefashionguild In 1985, Giammetti explained this pattern to Vogue: Valentino has superstitions that became status symbols. He did red once, and now you have red in every collection. Most of our statements came to be because we are romantic; we dont like to throw away things we like or that bring good luck. Natalia Vodianova, Valentino, Natalie Imbruglia, and Eva Herzigova. Moscow, 2008. [Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images] Despite the ubiquity of Valentino Rosso, the shade isn’t actually an official Pantone color. According to Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, the company has no record of creating a custom Valentino redthough, she adds, the color mix he used was reportedly a combination of 100% magenta, 100% yellow, and 10% black. After Garavani’s retirement, Valentino did get its own Pantone color in 2022 under then-creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, who used a custom pink to establish his imprint on the brand. An emperor of fashion, and master of brand color In many ways, Garavanis obsession with his signature color presaged the modern era of luxury branding. Over the course of the past two decades or so, brands including Bottega Veneta, Tiffany & Co., and Herms have made their own keystone colors (green, blue, and orange, respectively) more prominent in their branding. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2022, Pressman explained that newer companies are leveraging color to stand out in a crowded digital market. Rather than waiting to develop a signature brand color over time, theyre looking to establish one as soon they come to market: Now what took years doesnt [anymore], because were seeing it on a phone every day, she told the publication. Garavani instinctively understood the power of color to send a message, long before it was a necessity for digital communicationand his lucky hue became his brands biggest asset. It has such vitality and allure that I dont just like seeing it on clothes, but on houses, in flowers, on objects, in details,” he wrote in Valentino Rosso. “It is my good-luck charm. “That red is a bewitching color, standing for life, blood and death, passion, love, and an absolute remedy for sadness and gloom,” Pressman says. Valentino did not respond to a request for comment.
Category:
E-Commerce
The day after French President Emmanuel Macron wore a pair of Henry Jullien Pacific S 01 aviator sunglasses during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the world wanted to know more about his eyewear. Search interest for Macron’s shiny, reflective sunglasses spiked Wednesday, and the French luxury eyewear brand’s website is down at time of this writing. All it takes is one world leader sporting a ready-to-wear garment or accessory for a brand to get a global spotlightand just maybe become a meme. Like interest shown to the Nike tracksuit Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was pictured wearing earlier this month after he was seized by the U.S., interest in Macron’s shades is just the latest example of a newsmaker driving attention to a piece of fashion, and parlaying a news item into an internet meme. Before you could buy a “Make America Great Again” hat on President Donald Trump’s website back in 2016, he wore one himself. Watch the news and shop the look. Macron’s shades, which cost 659 euros, or $770, weren’t worn primarily as a fashion statement, but to prevent something more unsightly, according to the explanation from his press office. Macron’s office told Reuters he wore the sunglasses because of a burst blood vessel in his eye, and he was indeed spotted last week with one bloodshot eye. While Macron’s sunglasses hid his eye, they also had the added benefit of sending a visual message that accompanied the contents of his speech. Macron called out U.S. tariffs during his address and urged “more stability” in the world and respect over bullying while wearing a more-than-a-century-old French luxury brand. Online, some people thought Macron’s sunglasses looked cool, whereas Trump mocked him. “I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?” Trump remarked during his Wednesday address in Davos. But if Macron hadn’t worn the sunglasses, everyone would be talking about his red eye. Instead, they’re talking about his expensive aviators. The sunglasses drew attention to Macron’s speech, but they also made him look like a French Top Gun fighter pilot at a moment when he needed to communicate that he meant business. They also recalled former President Joe Biden at a time when the West feels unmoored as the U.S. shrinks from its post-World War II leadership under Trump. This wasn’t the type of speech one could wear Oakleys to. Macron’s choice of sunglasses for such an important speech was just right.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colleges. The Education Department, in a court filing Wednesday, moved to dismiss its appeal. It leaves in place a federal judges August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. The dispute centered on federal guidance telling schools and colleges they would lose federal money if they kept a wide range of practices that the Republican administration labeled as diversity, equity, and inclusion. The department did not immediately comment. Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy firm representing the plaintiffs, said the dismissal was a welcome relief and a meaningful win for public education. Todays dismissal confirms what the data shows: government attorneys are having an increasingly difficult time defending the lawlessness of the president and his cabinet, said Skye Perryman, the group’s president and CEO. The department sent the anti-DEI warning in a Dear Colleague Letter to schools last February. The memo said race could not be considered in decisions involving college admissions, hiring, scholarships and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life. It said efforts to increase diversity had led to discrimination against white and Asian American students. The department later asked K-12 schools to certify they did not practice DEI, again threatening to cut federal funding. Both documents were struck down by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland. In her ruling, she said the guidance stifled teachers’ free speech, causing millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished. The challenge was filed by the American Federation of Teachers. ___ The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. By Collin Binkley, AP education writer
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. stock market is steadying following its worst day since October, though some signs of fear remain on Wall Street Wednesday about President Donald Trumps desire to take Greenland. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% after Trump said in a speech before business and government leaders in Europe that he would not use force to take the piece of ice. The potential de-escalation in rhetoric, which had ramped up earlier with talk of tariffs crossing the Atlantic, helped the index recover some of its 2.1% drop from the day before and pull closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 336 points, or 0.7%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher. Treasury yields also eased in the bond market, a day after jumping in a potential signal of worries about higher inflation in the long term. They got help from a calming of bond yields in Japan, which surged earlier on concerns about the size of its government’s debt. The value of the U.S. dollar also held steadier against the euro, Swiss franc and other currencies after sliding the day before. But some nerves seemed to remain in the market, and the price of gold rose another 1.7% and topped $4,800 per ounce for the first time. Trump himself acknowledged how his desire for Greenland led to Tuesdays drop in the U.S. stock market, but he called it peanuts compared to what its gone up in the first year of his second term and said it would go up further in the future. While saying he would not use force to take Greenland, he called for immediate negotiations for the United States to acquire it from Denmark. Trump has a history of making big threats that send financial markets sliding, only to pull back later and reach deals that are seen as less bad for the economy or for inflation than his initial suggestion. On one hand, the pattern has given rise to the TACO acronym suggesting Trump Always Chickens Out if financial markets react strongly enough. On the other, has ultimately struck deals that outsiders may have earlier considered unlikely, ones that he’s crowed about later. The most obvious example is Trump’s announcement of high tariffs on Liberation Day, which eventually led to trade deals with many of the world’s major economies. Helping to lead the U.S. stock market Wednesday was Halliburton, which rose 4.9% after the oilfield services company reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. United Airlines climbed 2.9% after likewise reporting a better profit for the end of 2025 than expected. CEO Scott Kirby said that the airlines strong momentum in revenue is continuing into 2026. They helped offset a 4.8% drop for Netflix. The streamer sank even though it reported a stronger profit than expected as investors focused instead on its slowing subscriber growth and its lower-than-expected forecast for profit in the current quarter. Kraft Heinz sank 5.4% after Berkshire Hathaway warned investors Tuesday that it may be interested in selling its 325 million shares in the food giant that former CEO Warren Buffett helped create in 2015. Berkshire took a $3.76 billion write-down on its Kraft-Heinz stake last summer. Buffett said last fall that he was disappointed in Kraft Heinz plan to split the company in two, and Berkshires two representatives resigned from the Kraft board last spring. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.27% from 4.30% late Tuesday. But it’s still above the 4.24% level where it was at on Friday. That’s before Trump threatened to impose 10% tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland beginning in February for opposing U.S. control of Greenland. That would be on top of a 15% tariff specified by a trade agreement with the European Union that has yet to be ratified. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4%. The country’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has called a snap election for Feb. 8, which had sent yields of long-term government bonds to record levels. The expectation is that Takaichi, who is capitalizing on strong public support ratings, will cut taxes and boost spending and increase the government’s already heavy load of debt. The yield on the 40-year Japanese government bond pulled back to 4.05% Wednesday, down from the 4.22% level that it had surged to on Tuesday. Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] next »